TRI-STATE HARVESTER USAC MIDGETS

This Saturday night, October 8, the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship contests the Harvest Cup at Haubstadt, Indiana’s Tri-State Speedway, the final USAC National Midget event in the Midwest this year before heading out west. (Josh James Artwork Photo)

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Haubstadt, Indiana (October 6, 2022)………Thomas Meseraull has made a habit of changing up the narratives at Haubstadt, Indiana’s Tri-State Speedway in recent years.

Two years ago, the San Jose, California driver erased two decades of frustration by scoring his first career USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature victory.

One year ago, Meseraull, henceforth, became the first driver ever to score multiple USAC National Midget victories at the track, ending a string of 12 consecutive series races held at the 1/4-mile dirt oval since 1969 in which a different winning driver emerged.

Just this past June, Meseraull once again paced the field to become the first three-time USAC National Midget winner at The Class Track and now holds the belt as the undisputed king of midget racing at The Class Track.

This Saturday night, October 8, Meseraull will attempt to keep the roll going in his RMS Racing number 7x during Harvest Cup at Tri-State, the final USAC National Midget event in the Midwest this year before the series heads west.

Meseraull’s USAC Midget experience at the track goes back more than a decade where he finished 10th in 2010, 3rd in 2011 and 8th in 2019 and 3rd once more in June of 2021. He also possesses the 10-lap record set in October of 2021, a time of 2:17.42, which broke his own previous record from 10 years earlier.

Over the past four USAC Midget events at Tri-State, only Kyle Cummins has put a halt to Meseraull’s winning streak. By now, everyone is fully cognizant of his scores of wins in USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car and MSCS competition at the track. However, he’s yet to finish outside the top-six in each of five career midget starts at the track. His victorious run in the summer of 2021 is sandwiched between a pair of third-place results, a 5th and a 6th.

Zach Daum (Pocahontas, Illinois) captured his first career USAC National Midget victory at Tri-State back in the 2011 Hut 100. He’s also been a top-five runner in 2010 with a fifth and, most recently, slotted into the 6th position this past June.

Justin Grant (Ione, California) has finished inside the top-10 in all five of his USAC Midget starts at Tri-State. He earned hard charger honors in the 2019 TSS USAC Midget Harvest Cup feature, ripping through the field to finish 5th after starting 16th. In the 2021 Harvest Cup, he took 3rd for his best series result at the track. The July 2021 TSS Indiana Sprint Week winner also owns an 8th, 8th and 9th with the midgets on his TSS resume.

Buddy Kofoid (Penngrove, California) has progressively finished higher in each of his USAC Midget appearances at Tri-State. He finished 12th in his 2020 debut, followed by a 10th and 9th in 2021 to go along with a runner-up result this past June in a race that involved several fireworks, so to speak, as he and Justin Grant tussled for the position near the end.

The lucky number for Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Oklahoma) at Tri-State has been four in his last two go-arounds at Tri-State, finishing an impressive 4th in both 2021 rounds. They’re joined by KKM’s Tri-State experienced pilots who both finished inside the top-10 in June of this year with Taylor Reimer (Bixby, Okla.) scoring a 7th and Dominic Gorden (Clovis, Calif.) notching a 10th.

Their Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports teammates include Kaylee Bryson (Muskogee, Okla.) who knows how to charge at Tri-State. She bolted from 22nd to 9th in the Fall of 2021 and, this past June, made the biggest advancement of the season with a 22nd to 4th surge. Bryant Wiedeman (Colby, Kansas) took 8th in the 2021 Harvest Cup while Brenham Crouch (Lubbock, Texas) tallied a best of 14th in June.

Mitchel Moles and Chase McDermand will team up on CB Industries’ weekend roster for Tri-State. Both made their Tri-State debuts back in June of this year with both turning in impressive performances. Top-rated Rookie Moles (Raisin City, Calif.) traveled 10th to 3rd in that night’s feature while McDermand made a similarly magnificent advancement from 16th to 8th.

Cannon McIntosh (Bixby, Oklahoma) has been a top-10 occupant of the finishing order at Tri-State, collecting a 7th in June of 2021. Chance Crum (Snohomish, Wash.) posted a 15th in the 2021 Harvest Cup while Ethan Mitchell (Mooresville, North Carolina) finished 17th in June in the same event that both Jacob Denney (Galloway, Ohio) and Hayden Reinbold (Gilbert, Ariz.) made their Tri-State debuts, finishing 21st and 22nd, respectively.

First-time Tri-State USAC Midget feature starting hopefuls include BCRA Midget champion Maria Cofer (Macdoel, Calif.) and Midwest Mini Sprint Association standout Jeff Schindler (Evansville, Ind.) as well as micro sprint talent Talin Turner (Basehor, Kan.) and more.

UP NEXT:

Next up on the USAC calendar are a pair of National Midget outings this weekend, Friday, October 7, in the 9th running of the Peoples National Bank Jason Leffler Memorial at Wayne County Speedway in Wayne City, Ill. and on Saturday, October 8, in the Harvest Cup at Haubstadt, Indiana’s Tri-State Speedway.

Saturday night’s 30-lap race will be the 15th USAC National Midget event held at Tri-State Speedway since the series’ debut at the track in 1969, won by two-time series champion Mike McGreevy.

Saturday at Tri-State, pits open at 3pm Central with grandstands opening at 4pm, the drivers meeting at 4:30pm and hot laps at 5:30pm with qualifying and racing immediately following. Adult general admission tickets are $25, students aged 13-18 are $20 and kids aged 12 & under are free. Pit passes are $30 for members and $35 for non-members. Also racing at the Harvest Cup are the Midwest Sprint Car Series and the Midwest Mini Sprint Association.

Both of this weekend’s USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship events can be watched LIVE on FloRacing at https://flosports.link/3AMU46z.

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USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Buddy Kofoid-1581, 2-Justin Grant-1424, 3-Bryant Wiedeman-1232, 4-Cannon McIntosh-1227, 5-Thomas Meseraull-1219, 6-Mitchel Moles-1215, 7-Kaylee Bryson-1173, 8-Jacob Denney-970, 9-Taylor Reimer-967, 10-Brenham Crouch-928.

TRI-STATE SPEEDWAY USAC NATIONAL MIDGET WINS

3-Thomas Meseraull

1-Brady Bacon, Barry Butterworth, Lonnie Caruthers, Bryan Clauson, Kyle Cummins, Zach Daum, Jason McDougal, Mike McGreevy, Johnny Parsons, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. & Sleepy Tripp

TRI-STATE SPEEDWAY USAC NATIONAL MIDGET WINNERS

1969: Mike McGreevy (6/27)

1978: Sleepy Tripp (5/5)

1979: Johnny Parsons (6/15) & Barry Butterworth (8/24)

1980: Lonnie Caruthers (5/2)

2007: Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (5/12)

2010: Bryan Clauson (5/8)

2011: Zach Daum (5/21)

2012: Brady Bacon (6/2)

2019: Jason McDougal (10/19)

2020: Thomas Meseraull (10/10)

2021: Kyle Cummins (6/11) & Thomas Meseraull (10/9)

2022: Thomas Meseraull (6/5)

HARVEST CUP USAC NATIONAL MIDGET WINNERS:

2-Thomas Meseraull

1-Jason McDougal

HARVEST CUP USAC NATIONAL MIDGET WINNERS:

2019: Jason McDougal (10/19)

2020: Thomas Meseraull (10/10)

2021: Thomas Meseraull (10/9)

TRACK RECORDS FOR USAC NATIONAL MIDGETS AT TRI-STATE SPEEDWAY:

1 Lap – 10/9/2021 – Tanner Thorson – 13.266

3 Laps – 6/27/1969 – Bob Tattersall – 50.000

8 Laps – 6/8/2011 – Hunter Schuerenberg – 1:43.14

10 Laps – 10/9/2021 – Thomas Meseraull – 2:17.42

12 Laps – 10/19/2019 – Tanner Thorson – 2:59.89

40 Laps – 6/15/1979 – Johnny Parsons – 11:07.40

50 Laps – 6/27/1969 – Mike McGreevy – 14:15.27